Just when I thought I couldn't be any happier with my Xcard....

[mikejaner]

At this point I have Sage menu's overlayed on the Xcard out to the VGA or Svideo outputs. I am now awaiting the new DVI-02 adapter so that I can output to my HDTV. I am a bit concerned about getting a decent 1280x720 out of the on-board video thought. We'll see.

Keep us informed. I would like to know how the SP can handle that res too. What is this DVI-02 adapter your talking about. Do you have a link?

[dblaine2]

The other question I have as I dig through my old video cards... I have a Geforce 256 ( I never throw away anything ). It has a VIP header on it. Do you think this would suffice?

[dbfresh23]

I have tested my GF256 and GF3 Ti200 and both work so there is a good chance yours will also, but don't hold me to it!

[mediahome]

The SVideo out looks terrible on my JVC HDTV but that has more to do with me being spoiled with 1280x720 than it has to do with the EPIA SP. I will hook it up to the old Sony via SVideo to see how it compares with the FX5200 that I used previously. The JVC does not have a VGA in so I am in limbo until the DVI adapter is available ("any day now").

The DVI-02 is an updated version of the DVI-01 that is specifically for the EPIA SP and DP. Nothing available on it yet - I found out about it by email conversations with VIA support by way of the tech's at MitxPC.com.

Still assessing whether the heat generated by the Xcard and PVR250 requires additional cooling measures. I am using a Silverstone LC06 which is pretty "open" but I may need to break down and add a fan to push some air out. I don't want to have to resort to that as it is completely fanless at this point (I am using the EPIA SP8000E).

More to come...

[mediahome]

dblaine2 - I am not so sure that the two missing pins are significant. Assuming that they dropped pins 25 and 26 then you don't need them. I have VIP working with a 10 conductor cable. See my message on page 2 of this thread.

[dblaine2]

Originally Posted by mediahome

dblaine2 - I am not so sure that the two missing pins are significant. Assuming that they dropped pins 25 and 26 then you don't need them. I have VIP working with a 10 conductor cable. See my message on page 2 of this thread.

Thanks. Now to find a Xcard with the header.... Going to ebay now.

[ErsatzTom]

I believe that they removed pins 1 & 2. I soldered them back onto one of my cards and it works quite well now.

t

[mediahome]

When looking at the component side of the Xcard are those two pins on the left or right side of the header?

[ErsatzTom]

Top left. Right where the little arrow that traditionally indicates pin #1 is pointing.

t

[dongta]

Mediahome: How is the built-in hardware mpeg decoder on the SP compared to the XCard?

[mediahome]

Thats pins 1 & 2 allright. Pin 1 is DATA0 and obviously is required. Would love to hear the inside story as to why they decided to leave off those two pins.

[laurenglenn]

Originally Posted by mediahome

Thats pins 1 & 2 allright. Pin 1 is DATA0 and obviously is required. Would love to hear the inside story as to why they decided to leave off those two pins.

Well, at least your xCard came with VIP pins. Mine came without the entire VIP connector whatsoever....

It's OK, though. I'm still enjoying my Component 480i display from the xCard.

Lauren

[dblaine2]

Originally Posted by mediahome

Thats pins 1 & 2 allright. Pin 1 is DATA0 and obviously is required. Would love to hear the inside story as to why they decided to leave off those two pins.

MPAA, I bet. The ones in circulation were crippled. The new ones were built without the header altogther.

[abanytime]

Newb here, resurrecting an older thread. Would a card like this

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...203403322&rd=1

or this

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...204944239&rd=1

work with an older xcard with the VIP header? They both look like they meet the critieria in SHS' post above but I want to be sure.

Thanks for any help you can provide. I'm assembling components for a PVR that I'm outputting to a SD TV.

- Andy

[dbfresh23]

Don't know about the PNY, But the MSI does - well sorta. It works perfectly fine, but the heatsink is too close to header to get a cable on there. I just pulled it off cut off a small piece, reinstalled and it worked fine. Keep in mind though, the MSI doesn't have svid out, so unless you have dvi or vga on your tv or you'll just be using a monitor then this may not be the right card for you.

[abanytime]

Thanks dbfresh. It didn't occur to me this was the card you were speaking of earlier. Unfortunately, I need svideo out for my TV. I'll keep looking, thanks again for the post.

[SHS]

Any nVidia card that has VIP will work make no diff if it a PCI or AGP starting with Riva all the way to GeForce 3 Ti 500 which last card build with VIP harder far I know of.
dblaine2 you have that 100% rigth it MPPA sticking it nose where it don't belong.

[mayamaniac]

Read a first few pages of this thread and I'm still not sure what's the point of feeding Xcard 26pin VIP through some old video card's VIP input. What does this do? Anyone can summarize the purpose of this thread in a few sentences? Thanks.

[mikejaner]

Basically it allows you to let a hardware decoder put the video image where the video would normally be done by the CPU/Video Card. The advantage is you get full decoding and proper interlacing done with no CPU and the full speed of the GUI.

[dbfresh23]

Without the VIP cable the display when using the Xcard will only show on the Xcards output. With the VIP cable the video display is also displayed on the video card's output - be it to a monitor or tv. The point of this is that it makes the xcard plugin unnecessary, so there is no color or speed loss in the SageTV menu.